I. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to improvements in electrified fence gates and, more particularly, to a gate which will permit the free passage of automobiles and the like but will prevent the passage of livestock animals through the gate opening by use of an electric shock.
II. Description of Prior Art
It is known in the art to provide and electrified fence gate having a series of spaced gate wires depending from a horizontal support means extending across the opening of the gate. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,493,480 to Nichol, describes and electrified fence gate with flexible support wire 24 an multiple gate wires 26. Furthermore, U.S. Pat. No. 2,476,233 to Wood, discloses an electric guard for livestock using free hanging electrified wires 15 hanging from a common horizontal wire 10. In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 4,006,714 to Goossen, shows an animal gate using a plurality of flexible electrical conductors hanging down from spaced points on a crossarm.
All of the above prior art devices involve the use of a plurality of hanging wires or other elements to form the gate. However, this construction leads to certain disadvantages which are caused by the tendency of the vertical wires or flexible elements to become entangled with another because of passage of a vehicle or due to other causes such as wind or breezes which would be present in the environment wherein the prior art gates are used. Moreover, the devices of the Wood and Nichol patents rely upon a single horizontal wire to support the vertically oriented gate wires and, consequently, the snagging of one or more of the gate wires by a vehicle could lead to the breakage of the horizontal support wire.
The present invention is intended to overcome the above disadvantages by providing means to avoid the entanglement of the gate wires and by providing robust mounting means for the gate wires so that the gate wire support will not be damaged.